It looks like at least one — and maybe even two — of this year’s cream-of-the-crop wide receivers will be available when the Titans make the seventh overall pick of the NFL Draft next Thursday.
Most analysts believe Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison will be gone before No. 7. But there seems a chance — based on the bulk of mock drafts, anyway — that LSU’s Malik Nabers is still around and a better chance Washington’s Rome Odunze is still on the board.
Doesn’t matter, says former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik, who will serve as draft analyst on the SiriusXM NFL Radio and SiriusXM College Sports Radio channels.
The Titans don’t need a wide receiver at No. 7, per Dominik, who believes the team should select either Georgia tight end Brock Bowers or Notre Dame tackle Joe Alt.
“I think the receiver class is deep enough where you can go to round two. And especially with what they’ve done at receiver with [Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins and Treylon Burks], I just don’t think that’s going to be the fit they’re looking for,” Dominik said Thursday during a conference call.
Passing on a wide receiver at the seventh pick seems understandable, as the Titans last month signed Ridley to a four-year, $92 million contract. In addition, Tennessee has Hopkins, who, even at age 31 last season, caught 75 passes for 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns.
But Dominik might see the rest of the Titans’ receiver room — which includes Burks, Kyle Philips, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Colton Dowell among others — more optimistically than some fans.
Burks, a 2022 first-round pick, has a combined 49 catches for 665 yards and one touchdown in two seasons, during which he missed 12 games. Philips, a 2022 fifth-round selection, has played in just 13 games over two seasons, catching 23 passes for 259 yards.
Westbrook-Ikhine has been steady, averaging about 30 catches and three touchdowns per season over the past three years. Dowell, a seventh-round pick last year, played 51 offensive snaps and made one catch.
Hopkins is in the last year of his contract and Ridley will turn 30 in December.
Nonetheless …
“I think wide receiver is a luxury for [the Titans] right now,” Dominik said. “Kyle Philips still has a chance to kind of find a way in his role within their team as well. But when you have three receivers with [Ridley, Hopkins, Burks] size and with the way you’ve built [the team], and where you have other spots on the team where I feel like there’s other needs, I think [drafting a receiver] just becomes … the board really has to tell you that you have to take this guy.
“I would rather take another tackle, take two tackles, then take another wide receiver for 2024," he added. "I think this is a spot where I’ll take the extra defensive tackle. I’ll take another pass-rusher shot before I take wide receiver. I think you could watch the Titans come out and don’t even take a wide receiver."
Dominik believes Philips, and potentially Dowell, offer the Titans options with the present group.
“I think they should feel comfortable enough that, again, Kyle Philips, I think can hold up. We’ll see what Colton Dowell can do," Dominik said. "But I feel pretty good that [wide receiver is] a luxury, and it’s only if the board screams it. [That means] you might pass on a guy in the fifth round, but he’s still there in the sixth and then you just take him. Other than that, it’s more that they have other needs that I would rather double up or triple up on to see if I can find some more depth on this team and more help on special teams.”